LANGE GRAPHICS — FINDING DIGITAL FOOTHOLDS

Static cling and adhesive labels are among the specialty materials that the company also produces digitally. Lange says the press’ triple paper bin facilitates switching between substrates. Specialty materials account for about 35 percent of the shop’s volume overall, he estimates, but that business is still being built up on the digital side.

As another element of the nationwide bank program, Lange Graphics has been implementing a Web-to-print solution to handle both offset and digital work. “This was the first application big enough to justify the effort and expense,” reports the company exec.

According to Lange, the firm elected to work with Printable Technologies in deploying a solution because of the resources that would have been required to put together and maintain its own system. Training internal staff and customers on how to use the system is challenging enough, he says.

Inventory management is to be part of the online system since the shop was offering fulfillment services even before it got into digital printing. In the case of mailing services, it provides customers one-stop service, but has developed a relationship with a nearby outside firm to do the final processing.

The veteran printing exec traces his company’s involvement with digital printing back to being an early adopter of computer-to-plate production with a then-Creo system. “It (direct-to-plate production) was probably the development that has helped printing the most,” he says.

Some customers use both offset and digital services while others do not, but they are all served by the same sales team, Lange says. Not all salespeople are equally successful selling both, so he has considered adding digital specialists.

Lange Graphics obviously still sees big things ahead for its offset business, as well, having just invested in a six-color, 41˝ KBA Rapida 105 press with hybrid and full UV capability. This machine is replacing a five-color, 26˝ press, leaving it with two 28˝ sheetfeds.